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Brembo Brakes Officially Enters the Mountain Bike Market with Specialized Gravity Partnership

Motorsports powerhouse Brembo Brakes partners with the Specialized Gravity team for the 2025 World Cup season.
A mechanic tightening the brake lever of Brembo Brakes on a Specialized Gravity team bike(photo/Billy Ceusters)
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Earlier this year, we reported on Brembo Brakes’ acquisition of Ohlins Suspension. At that time, Brembo promised “conversion of race track innovation into consumer products.” It wasn’t exactly clear what that meant, and we speculated that perhaps they would help drive the innovation of new electronically controlled Ohlins suspension components. We’ve been seeing prototypes on the race circuit for years, and we remain hopeful that they will likely hit the market eventually. 

This new partnership between Brembo Brakes and the Specialized Gravity team, however, was a bit less expected. But, when you consider that Ohlins is Specialized Gravity’s suspension sponsor, it seems like a more natural jump for the motorsport-focused brake brand to make. This announcement also confirms that some of the spy shots circulating of unidentified brakes on Specialized team riders’ bikes were, in fact, prototype Brembo mountain bike brakes.

Brembo is best known for producing brakes for top-level motorsport racing, including Formula 1, MotoGP, and World Superbike. They are clearly experienced in making high-performance brake systems, but as far as we know, this is Brembo’s first foray into the mountain bike world. With decades of experience in competition at the highest level, however, it isn’t too surprising that they’re jumping right onto the World Cup stage. While the braking demands of motorsport and mountain bike racing are different, the goal is ultimately the same. Control.

A red Brembo brake caliper on a Specialized gravity team bike
Brembo’s mountain bike brakes are looking well past the prototype stage. (photo/Billy Ceusters)

From the Press Release:

Specialized Bicycles and Brembo Brakes have joined forces in a first-of-its-kind partnership focused exclusively on pushing the limits of downhill racing performance. This collaboration brings together two brands with deep roots in competition and a relentless drive to win — on dirt, on track, and on the world stage. Just as Brembo revolutionized motorsport braking through its iconic 1970s partnership with Ferrari, this venture brings that same championship-winning engineering into mountain biking — giving Specialized Gravity athletes unprecedented control and stopping power.

Purpose-Built for a New Era of Racing

As downhill bikes get faster, tracks get rougher, and athletes redefine the limits of what’s rideable, braking has become an even more critical performance need. The Specialized Gravity team needed a system built for the leading edge of progression — and Brembo delivered.

At Specialized, we’ve always believed that racing is the ultimate proving ground for innovation,” said Armin Landgraf, CEO of Specialized. “We hold our partners to the same high standards we set for ourselves, and Brembo’s legacy of forward-thinking engineering and race-proven performance made them the clear choice. This partnership represents a strategic investment in cutting-edge technology — designed to support our athletes at the highest level. As downhill racing continues to evolve, this collaboration ensures we deliver breakthroughs that start on the podium and shape the future of the sport.”

Specialized Gravity athletes will pilot prototype Brembo brakes throughout the 2025 World Cup season. These components are the result of a focused R&D partnership aimed solely at delivering podium-worthy performance under the most demanding conditions in the sport.

Brembo Didn’t Just Improve Braking — They Revolutionized It

Officially entering the highest level of professional Downhill racing is a thrilling new challenge for Brembo. We are proud to do so with a team and a brand that share our same vision of performance and innovation, and it is no coincidence that this is happening in the year of Brembo’s 50th anniversary in Motorsport competitions,” stated Andrea Paganessi, Brembo Motorcycle Global Chief Operating Officer. “Today, we can confidently say that thanks to Brembo’s technological advancements, braking has been taken to an entirely new level.

This exclusive racing partnership marks Brembo’s first appearance in top-tier downhill mountain biking. Known for their dominance in Formula 1, MotoGP, and World Superbike, Brembo brings decades of championship-winning experience in high-performance braking systems. Together with Specialized’s history of innovation in mountain bike design and rider-first engineering, the collaboration represents a bold step forward in gravity racing development.

While the partnership is centered solely on racing, its spirit reflects a shared belief: when athletes are empowered to push limits, innovation follows.

a full set of Brembo mountain bike brakes on a work bench waiting to be installed on a bike
No Brembo Brakes for you, yet. (photo/Billy Ceusters)

When Can We Buy Some Brembo Brakes?

While the brakes in the photos certainly looked like a finished product that’s well past the prototype stage, I wouldn’t get your hopes up about buying them anytime soon. According to the press release, the Specialized Gravity Team will be riding prototypes for the 2025 season — prototypes that just happen to look ready for retail shelves. With that in mind, it seems like 2026 would be the earliest these new stoppers would hit the market, but that’s just speculation, of course.

For now, we can stop speculating about what brakes the Specialized Gravity Team is using and see how Brembo’s prototype mountain bike brakes perform under some of the fastest riders in the world.

specializedgravity.com

brembo.com

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blahblahblah
blahblahblah
3 months ago

must have!

Exodux
Exodux
3 months ago

I’m really surprised to see this. The brake market is already crowded and the bike industry is stagnant. Good luck to them, but I don’t’ see much of a future.

ShopMechanic
ShopMechanic
3 months ago
Reply to  Exodux

The future Brembo are planning on is OE spec for Specialized. It’s a new house brand for Specialized like Roval. That’s a huge market all by itself.

In general, component brands only really cater to OE businesses. It’s just too easy to make huge sales with 5-10 companies than to try to make thousands of aftermarket sales with all the support, packaging, sales staff, warranties, and shipping required. Most brands tend to view aftermarket sales as a kind of necessary evil. Small brands view it as a launching point for eventual OE sales or they plan to stay ultra high end and niche like Paul Components or Trickstuff to name a couple.

ShopMechanic
ShopMechanic
3 months ago
Reply to  ShopMechanic

Forgot to mention that marketing costs are really high with aftermarket business too. For OE you just have to give product managers whatever free product they want, swag, and take them out for expensive dinners. That’s PENNIES compared to just one banner ad placement on one major website.

tertius_decimus
tertius_decimus
3 months ago

Knowing Brembo, their products will be $$pensive. Definitely not what a crashing market needs right now. Also, Hayes Dominion do exist. I’ll leave it at that for now.

ShopMechanic
ShopMechanic
3 months ago

It’s a Specialized OE business partnership. They’ll sell aftermarket too, but I expect it to just be another item on the Specialized website like Roval wheels that are a tiny percentage of sales compared to the OE stuff. I also expect Specialized to routinely have spotty supply for the aftermarket stuff like they often do with high end house brand products.

Keep enjoying your Hayes brakes. There’s nothing wrong with them. Like you, I don’t expect the Brembos to be offer a night and day difference in performance or value compared to many other brake offerings out there. However I do expect Specialized to save money on their cost of goods sold and for them to have a stronger features and benefits pitch for their complete bikes.

Of course I could be completely wrong about all of this despite working on the manufacturing end of the industry for 5 years, but it’s hard to imagine Brembo meaningfully competing with even a brake brand like Lewis, which is where I expect the aftermarket price point to be.

Remains to be seen where these will be made, but my money is on Taiwan rather than Italy, Spain, Portugal, or Eastern Europe if country of manufacture is really important to you and you are willing to pay more for that. Taiwan makes sense because that’s where the frames are made along with most of the other OE parts and that radically reduces shipping costs.

ShopMechanic
ShopMechanic
3 months ago

A note on the “prototype” status that is doubted repeatedly: These look to be what are called “pilot runs” in the manufacturing sector. Think of them as practice runs for dialing in tolerances and processes. During this stage of development the form factor can no longer change without big investments in retooling so they rarely happen. However, internal machining and parts can be tweaked to improve longevity and performance, but we’re generally talking about small changes.

As someone who’s worked as a shop rat, press editor, and on the manufacturing and marketing side of the industry it really bums me out to see how little 90% of cycling press editors know about the business and manufacturing sides of the industry. It results in these tropes about changing standards, who is responsible, and conspiracy theories that are simply false mostly due to ignorance or lack of journalistic footwork.

Anyway, rant over. Just please be aware of the Dunning Kruger effect when commenting on processes you may have limited experience in.

blahblahblah
blahblahblah
3 months ago
Reply to  ShopMechanic

the only one “Dunning Kruger” here is you

M.
M.
3 months ago

You mean re-enters the market. In like 2010 there was brembo disc brakes aimed at mtbs.

rxpt
rxpt
3 months ago

Is there something technologically unique about them compared to the usual suspects? Or they just banking on the name?

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